Tanger, Morocco
The road trip started in Tanger, in the north of Morocco. Flights to Morocco are very, very, very cheap. I think it cost me 12$ and was the cheapest flight I have ever taken in my life so far. It took 1.5 hours, and we arrived safely in sunny Morocco. We checked into the hotel and got a warm welcoming from the locals with traditional tea. What an arrival. Then we continued to explore around the city a bit and got some more food just to adjust and get into the North African vibes. Without a car it’s not really a roadtrip, so we rented one. Starting in Tangier, returning it in Marrakech.
Chefchaouen, Morocco
The next day, we headed South to a famous town. Chefchaouen, the blue city. It’s famous for its blue houses. It is very touristy, and because of that, the locals are very annoying and money-centric. That’s something I didn’t enjoy on the whole trip. As soon as you arrive in some tourist places, locals aren’t as friendly and trying to trick tourists. Moroccans usually are not like that, very welcoming and open towards foreigners, not at touristy place.
We wanted to take part in a free walking tour to learn more about the touristy town. As we arrived at the time and place the guide agreed on, the guide wasn’t there to be found, only some other participants. After waiting a while and trying to reach the guide, we decided to do our own tour. A Dutch couple was with us, with which we understand each other very well. We walked and had meals together. There was spontaneously also a friend in town from Morocco, but another city who coined us for lunch. The waiter thought he’s our tourist guide and he could eat for free (in exchange that he brought us). My Moroccan friend went to explain the issue, he got the meal for free anyways – this was so funny.
Fès, Morocco
Next, we headed down to the next big city, Fès. There, I met a friend and another local from Couchsurfing. We walked around the old town together, and he introduced me to some interesting places and stories. I loved the city primarily because of the local introduction and the people I was with. Nothing was planned, and we came spontaneously together.
On the way, we got stopped by the police and got a ticket for speeding. I was driving 75 since the usual speed limit on country roads is 80. The police took us out, saying it’s only 60 here. I didn’t believe them, but what should I do? I stayed polite and told them I didn’t know that since usually it’s 80. The officer was very friendly and explained things to me. In the end, he gave me a 50% discount because I’m so “friendly”. Typical Moroccan police story in the end, super corrupt and I’m pretty sure they came up with the 60 km/h speed limit and just stop out innocent tourists to get extra money. Most locals they tried to stop at the meantime just continued driving and ignored them.
Rabat, Morocco
Next off the capital of Morocco, Rabat. There wasn’t much to see. We could already see most sites after half a day of exploring and walking around. So, after arriving late at night, we decided to leave the next day in the late afternoon for a quiet place a bit further south on the coast, El Jadida. There we stayed for a night and enjoyed a great breakfast in a very cosy restaurant which was part of the accommodation.
Ouzoud Falls, Morocco
Quite a drive away was the village of Ouzoud. It’s a tourist attraction because of the big waterfall there. This was a good last stop before heading into the capital and returning the car, although it meant more hours of driving a car. I was already exhausted from moving so much. It was a 5 hours (300km) ride. Arrived there it was already dark. We drove through interesting landscape in the Atlas mountains. Took a couple of hitchhiker here and there, one of which impressed us a lot. A 12 year old school child who had to walk back home from school a long distance. No issue jumping into the back of a stranger car. He couldn’t speak with us, but with some basic hand-signs we could understand some basics. It was an experience.
The next day, visiting the waterfalls, I had no expectations after visiting Iceland this summer. But I was surprised. They were bigger than I thought. There’s not just one waterfall, there are multiple collapsing down a total of 110m. I had a walk down into the valley and took a boat tour closer to the waterfall.
Marrakech, Morocco
The one-week road trip is coming to an end, and so is my holiday. In Marrakech, I’m returning the car to the airport, but I’m not leaving Morocco. I’m staying in the capital to work for a week and then going to the coast for a month.
I enjoyed the last 2.5 hours of the road trip a lot. I had great vibes driving the car with music going through the landscape. Coming closer and closer to the city became a little less fun since there was chaotic traffic, and I was not used to driving in the city. So I was happy to arrive at the airport without a scratch and return it.
The next day, my Dutch friends from Chefchaouen texted me that they were in the city as well and wanted to meet up. Sure, we did it in the evening for dinner. It was. It was nice to sync and talk about what happened in each other’s holidays. That summed up my holiday in Morocco. Overall, it was a great but exhausting road trip.
The following week, I returned to work. I was working from my apartment in Marrakech. Business as usual. Working during the day and meeting some Couchsurfers in the evening for dinner. That worked very well in Marrakech. Locals are very open and there are also many tourists – so many options.
Taghazout, Morocco (Co-Living)
From the capital, I boarded a bus and drove 4 hours over mountains into the coastal area to another big city called Agadir. There, I met a Couchsurfer for a coffee and talked a bit. Then I hopped into a taxi and drove to a famous surfer village called Taghazout. This small village with basically nothing other than a few restaurants, coffees and obviously beaches to surf. But it’s a good thing that there are two lovely co-working/surf camps and a vibrant digital nomad community. Very unexpected for such a place. My Polish nomad friend, Piotrek, was there as well. While he stayed for 2 months, I decided to stay for one entire month.
The co-working was beautiful, with a great view over the village into the sea. The best spots to watch sunsets were from the workplace. The co-living is a mix between hostel/surf camp. Half of the people go there for at least a month to work, and the others go there for a holiday to learn how to surf. They stay less long (1-2 weeks usually). The community is amazing, people gather for breakfast and dinner since this is included in most packages, especially for the monthly subscriptions. We can also just grab surfboards and go surfing before or after work. What a lot of nomads are usually doing.
I’m not super into surfing, but I was more interested to see Piotrek, my Nomad friend, again. Hang out and have some focused work. Sometimes, I went down to the beach and surfed (my level is elementary, and sometimes the waves were too big) or did body boarding, which was a lot of fun. One evening I went for a surf skating lesson, which is a special type of skateboard, perfect for training the technics on the surfboard. It was a lot of fun and we were able to enjoy the sunset while practicing. At the end something unfortunate happened to me. While slipping out, I fell down on the concrete floor, while trying to catch myself my shoulder jumped out and we had difficulties to bit it back inside. Luckily I managed after around 15 painful minutes. It’s not my first time and I know there’s no more surfing or any kind of sports in Morocco for me. This happening means now that I shouldn’t move my shoulder for a week, let the pain calm down, then slowly start doing some specific exercise get back the motion and strengthen the muscles. To stabilize my shoulder, it would be great to have a bandage. Here the sad fun facts comes in. Two days before a friend from Italy joined us in Taghazout which just had an accident with his shoulder, which went out as well. So he arrived well prepared with cooling cream and bandage. When I came back in the evening and told him, that the same happened to me, he couldn’t believe it first. But since he’s doing way better, he removed his bandage and handed over everything to me.
We usually chilled or went on trips to other areas on the weekends. Mostly, people were excited about surfing. In the North, there is another, even smaller, surf village called Imsouane. On the way there, we also stopped at sandy dunes (Timlalin Dunes), which directly go into the ocean and have quite a spectacular view.
Since I couldn’t do many activities with my shoulder, I used my drone more often. So I joined the surf guys in the early morning for their sunset surf sessions and tried to catch them surfing some nice waves. It wasn’t that easy, actually, and it involved a lot of waiting. It’s good that I brought many batteries with me. The guys were stocked about the footages, it’s not happening every day that they could have a birdeye perspective from their personal surfing.
Merzouga, Morocco (Sahara desert)
At the end of my stay at the surf camp in Taghazout, my best friend flew there spontaneously. After she spent some days at the beach and enjoyed the weekend, it was coming up, which meant I had days off as well, and we could explore. We decided to book a trip to the big desert, the Sahara. It was a long way, but we joined a proper tour were able to sleep in the bus. On the way we stopped at many places and were able to interact with locals. We learned about the Barber history, how the life, build houses and for sure the food, everything very interesting.
After two days of driving (with stops and sleepover), we arrived at the desert. All the way in the East almost at the Algerian border. The place by the desert is called Merzouga. What I didn’t know is, that Morocco doesn’t have big batches of sandy desert how we know it. The Eastern part is very dry, but mostly filled with rocks, which counts as a desert, but isn’t what we imagine as the Sahara desert. In Merzouga they have a small batch of sand with camels and everything. That’s what we did. Went for a camel ride for the sunset and stopped at the top of the dunes to watch the sunset. Then we went down into the campsite in the middle of the desert for the night and enjoy some barbecue. The next morning we woke up very early to see the sunset and head back to the bus.
On the trip, something hilarious happened. One guy in the group was Swiss too, and when we asked each other where exactly from, we figured out that we grew up in one village next to each other. What are the odds for that? Two unknown guys from the same place meet randomly in the Sahara.
Marrakech, Morocco
After the big desert trip, we drove straight back to Marrakech. It’s an 8-hour drive. When we arrived in the capital, we had 2 nights to relax and explore more of the city. For my friend, it was the first time in the city. We had a very relaxed schedule and no expectations. That’s why I like to travel with her. Everything is so easy-going, and no rush. We went for food, had some drinks and just walked around.
Casablanca, Morocco
My friend left back to Germany from Marrakech and I took the bus back to the coast to the co-living after this extended weekend trip. I stayed 8 more days before I also headed to the airport in Agadir. There, something very unpleasant awaited me. Since drones are not allowed in Morocco at all, they confiscated everything (especially in Agadir since it’s a bit of touristy there). I tried to explain the officer that I always travel with my drone and on my way to Thailand, but he didn’t care, he just wanted money. I don’t know how things normally work, people probably bribe them and good is. But I’m Swiss, I don’t know how this works and so they took my drone and for the end of my trip there are no more drone pictures coming. Especially sad, that the drone is a very expensive and new one. I bought it for the Iceland trip this summer to capture some stunning areal photography.
I was flying to Casablanca with a small aeroplane, just a domestic flight to catch a bigger plane to Dubai. But first, I had a full day in Casablanca, and since I skipped this city during my road trip the month before, it was the perfect time to explore. The amazing part was that I knew two people who were available to hang out with me. So I get a packed schedule and local impressions – my favourite. The good part about my connecting flight was that they handled my luggage directly. So no need for me to pick it up and carrying around during my day.
First off, I was meeting Youness in the centre of Casablanca. He picked me up at the central station with his motorbike. From there we went to the coast and had a walk. Closeby is the impressive mosque named after their former president “Hassan II”. It’s one of the biggest mosques in the world and has the second-highest minaret, with around 200m.
Afterwards, we grabbed some drinks and sweets, and then I was about to meet my second friend which invited me for a traditional dinner at her families house. She and her sister picked me up in the centre by car and we drove in the suburbs, not far from the airport. There the mother and father were welcoming me. We had nice talks and to my surprise the father could speak decent English. So communication wasn’t a problem at all and I enjoyed and felt welcome even more. We eat Tagine, a Moroccan dish you’ll find everywhere when visiting.
They delivered me to the airport just before midnight because I had a night flight to Dubai. Everything went smoothly, and I was happy after my anger with the drone. So, overall, it was still a perfect day. While the police/government is a mess and corrupted, the locals are so kind and welcoming. It’s sad to see those significant differences within such a beautiful country.